AB
ARITA B

1 reviews | Active since Oct 2014

13 Mar 2020, 14:23

Waiting over 3 months for a flight refund from Cemair/Travelstart/HahnAir

On the 28th of December 2019 I have booked two flights from Jhb (Lanseria) to Margate for the 31st of Dec 2019. The next morning I had to cancel these due to friend that fell ill and our trip was cancelled. On Sunday afternoon 29 Dec 2019 I tried calling Cemair and Travelstart to cancel the tickets. Their answering machine stated that we must call back in office hours the next day. This was still within the 24 hour booking period. The next morning at 10:03 I send an email to Wesley Sansom to request cancellation. By 10:44 we received an email back that my flights have been cancelled as requested but there is still a R1000,00 cancellation fee i.e. R500 per person.. Nothing else. I then requested what will happen to my refund and when can I expect this. We were informed that the credit can be kept for 7 days alternatively they will process a refund. I then requested by return email to have the money refunded back to me a.s.a.p. It was stated, by the same man that the cancellation fee is R500 per person and that the R3706.22 will be refunded to my account. The reference number for this call was was AAR3L6. Since then it has been a battle to get my money refunded. It has been over 11 weeks (nearly 3 months) and I am still waiting for a refund. In January I phoned Cemair and spoke to Lee-Ann *** to which I was informed that they are not responsible for the refund. I then phone Travelstart and spoke to a very helpful gentleman Kyle who seemed interested in helping me solve my problem. He then promised that the refund will happen within 2 weeks. I then waited. Nothing happened. On the 5th of February 2020 at 10:45 I wrote again to Cemair and Travelstart and again requested when I can get my refund. I got an email back from Monique van der Bank (CemAir) that she received my correspondence and sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and that these tickets were via HahnAir and that Travelstart needs to submit a refund application via Hahnair and that they will settle the matter as soon as possible. I then wrote back state how unhappy and unsatisfied I was with this and that their letter of apology was just not good enough. Since then I have not had any feedback, calls or resolution on my issue. Myself, friend or my family and colleagues will never use these flights/online booking ever again as this is absolutely unacceptable to wait 3 months for some feedback and I am still waiting for my refund. Shocking to say the least!!!!

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Replies (1)
Travelstart
Travelstart's reply13 Mar 2020, 17:23
Official
Good afternoon Arita

 Thank you for your feedback on your flight booking with Travelstart.

I am sorry to hear you are not pleased with the service received and I completely understand the frustration this has caused.  I have tried to reach you on the cell number provided (ending in 6881), unfortunately to no avail.

Your query has been escalated to the refunds department, and they will be following up with Cemair and Hahn Air. We will provide feedback as soon as we receive an update from them.

We do apologize for this delay and appreciate your patience while we try and resolve this query for you ASAP!

Feel free to email feedback(at)travelstart.com if you have any further questions or concerns.

Kind regards,
Melony at Travelstart
Customer Relations Team